Located on Veterans Memorial Highway, this low-key Mexican restaurant features a stacked menu that includes everything from chimichangas and taco and enchilada plates to tortas, tostadas, bistec ranchero, and glass goblets filled to the brim with shrimp cocktail. For people who crave heat, make sure to order the diablo sauce for dipping chips and garnishing tacos. Wash it all down with a margarita.

Regulars to this Marietta Mexican restaurant tout the friendly service, not to mention the food and margaritas and mojitos from the bar here. Start off with the aptly named El Trio, a trio of guacamole, queso, and salsa paired with fresh chips. Next, order the braised pork burrito, carne asada plate served with rice, beans, and corn tortillas, or the chorizo torta garnished with lettuce, tomato, and pickled jalapenos. The restaurant also includes a selection of breakfast dishes.

Nuevo Laredo has been a longtime staple for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods of Underwood Hills, Bolton, Berkeley Park, and Blandtown. Serving a menu filled with Mexican comfort foods and margaritas, the Cantina’s compact parking lot is always full from the time the doors open until the restaurant closes for the day. Expect everything from loaded nachos, tortas, huevos rancheros, and enchiladas to tamales, fajitas, chalupas, and even lobster tacos on the menu at this northwest Atlanta favorite.

Located at the bustling Beacon complex in Grant Park, this Mexican restaurant owned by Roxana and Octavio Aguirre (El Mexicano), features a menu filled with street tacos, fajitas, ceviche, and weekly specials paired with some of the best margaritas in town. Kick off the meal on the large sunny patio with queso mixed with jalapeños and chorizo. 

Folks in the south metro would be wise to check out this Jonesboro Mexican restaurant institution serving a taste of Oaxaca on its menu. This includes the restaurant’s popular tlayuda — a pizza-like dish that sees a toasted tortilla topped with refried beans, cheese, choice of meat, and lettuce. Beyond the Oaxacan specialities found here, there’s also plenty of tacos, tamal plates, and dishes like chile relleno, bistec ranchero, and goat barbacoa served with rice and beans.

Boasting one of the best patios on Ponce, and with some seriously strong (but delicious) margaritas, El Ponce is a frequent spot for friends gathering for Mexican food any day of the week in Atlanta. Family-owned and operated, the taqueria serves taco plates with a choice of rice and beans or elote (Mexican street corn), overstuffed burritos, Oaxacan-style tamales, and a super satisfying chicken mole enchilada plate. Wash it all down with a margarita or a freshly made horchata. Make sure to also try the Valentina wings and chimichanga at El Ponce.

With locations in Forest Park and College Park, Taqueria Don Sige serves what regulars to this restaurant say are the best tacos around town. Try the tripe, cabeza, or lengua tacos here or one of the torta sandwiches on the menu.

Sinaloan-style chicken restaurant Pollo Primo, owned by chef Duane Kulers of Supremo Taco, took over the former Bento Mac Hibachi Box Wings and Sushi space in East Atlanta in 2022. The straight-forward menu here features quarter, half, and whole roast birds marinated in morita chile, citrus, and a selection of spices served with fresh tortillas and paired with sides like rice and beans, street corn, chicken soup, and churros. Meals come in individual and family-sized portions. Look for aguas frescas and horchata, as well as margaritas and beer on the drinks menu.

What began as a series of mezcal dinners at El Tesoro transformed into a mezcal bar and restaurant from Alan Raines and Samantha Eaves. Taking over the former Lawrence’s Cafe space, Tortuga y Chango builds a bridge between chef Hugo Suastegui’s hometown of Acapulco and the Pacific coast of Guerrero, Mexico, in the food and drinks. Expect dishes like vieiras a la sarten (scallops atop corn puree, jalapenos, seasoned vegetables and fruit); pescado entero (whole grilled fish in an adobo marinade); and aguachile de camaron (tostada topped with citrus-marinated shrimp) on the menu here. Cocktails by beverage director Orestes Cruz feature small producer mezcals and tequila in drinks like the El Corazon made with mezcal, fino sherry, and cynar.

This restaurant from the owners of El Valle in Midtown brings the flavors, ingredients, and dishes of Oaxaca to life in Chamblee. And it’s doing serious justice to the foods from this southwestern Mexican state through its use of core ingredients like chiles, corn, cheese, and beans and cooking techniques incorporating smoke, moles, and fresh masas made from ground corn for the tortillas, tamals, tlayudas, and gorditas. Start with a mezcal cocktail and a trio of salsas, the tetela de pato (duck confit and Oaxaca cheese), or the fresh and zesty hamachi tostada topped with black garlic aioli and salsa macha. Then, order a steak or seasonal vegetable tlayuda (Think Mexican-style pizza on a crisy tortilla to share.) The flor de calabaza (squash blossom quesadilla) stuffed with Oaxaca cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted onions is not to be missed. Fish lovers should order the whole wood-fired branzino spiced with black garlic. Finish with dessert, such as the corn husk mousse with meringue, paired with a glass of wine from producers around Mexico.

A Buford Highway institution, Plaza Fiesta is filled with over 140 retail shops and a food court offering everything from tortas, tamales, goat barbacoa, and tacos to classic Mexican seafood dishes, and even Venezuelan fare. There’s a stall serving fresh juices and a farmers market here, too. Grab food from multiple stalls at Plaza Fiesta to create a festival of dishes for the table.

A Mexican restaurant list couldn’t exist in Atlanta without this Buford Highway stalwart. El Rey Del Taco is known around town for its generous taco platters and exceptionally strong margaritas. There’s typically a wait here on the weekends, and often in the evenings, too. If there, purchase churros from the man who pops into the restaurant on occasion selling the fried dough treat in the dining room.

Just follow the fragrant column of smoke rising above this family-owned and operated restaurant serving Sinaloan-style chicken on the menu. Order half and whole roasted birds with sides of rice and beans and fresh flour tortillas. Make sure to order extra hot sauce, which comes as mild, medium, and very hot. The dining room often fills with people eating platters of roasted chicken and grilled steak while also watching soccer. There’s even menudo served at Sinaloense Pollo Asados on the weekends.

Featuring a menu filled with regional dishes found throughout Mexico, regulars to this family-owned and operated restaurant in Duluth swear by the food and friendly service here. Begin a meal at Alebrije Mexican Cuisine with a few shared appetizers, like the jicama Baja tacos topped with lime habanero slaw or a sizzling bowl of queso fundido with spicy chorizo. Next, order the slow-cooked cochinita pibil, Alebrije shrimp drizzled with tamarind mezcal chipotle sauce, or the puntas al mezcal, beef tips cooked with cactus, pasilla peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Make sure to also order the crepas con cajeta or espresso flan for dessert and either a tamarind margarita or frozen passionfruit margarita to drink.

Located in a small shopping complex on Old Peachtree, La Mixteca Tamale House specializes in Oaxacan dishes, like tlayudas or picaditas topped with cheese crumbles and salsa, along with some seriously righteous tamales. The pizza-like tlayudas are topped with everything from mole con huevo to carne asada and chapulines (dried grasshoppers). But the tamales on the menu at this restaurant are not to be missed, and come in sweet and savory varieties served individually or as plates. Order a cold Modelo and dig in.